It Never Rains But It Pours
by Davros
Summary: After Furinkan High is almost completely destroyed during some of the regular Ranma inspired chaos, his mother decides to move both him and his father back to their family home in Juuban in an attempt to get him away from the mess that they have managed t
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One 

Ranma sighed. He really didn't like this, but his mom . . . well, what she'd said had made a lot of sense, and he'd never been able to say no to her . . . and it really wasn't that much worse than the time he'd had to go bra shopping with her. Really.

"Oh the shame!" cried Genma. "My son dishonours me so by dressing like a weak little schoolgirl! The humiliation! The - "

Whatever else it was would forever be unknown to Ranma as the wrapped flat of his mother's katana smacked against the back of his pop's head and shut him up. It was kinda pathetic really. A grown man, a martial artist of real skill, and even the most minute glimpse of katana would have him quivering.

"This is not Nerima," said Nodoka, in a seemingly calm but distinctly authoritative tone of voice. "People here are not used to magic curses, and our son cannot avoid cold water all day."

"But - "

"No buts, Genma!" hissed Nodoka, her expression calm but the look in her eyes anything but. "Perhaps if you hadn't acted so foolishly at the wedding this might not be necessary, but there is nothing we can do about it now. With the note that nice Doctor Tofu lodged with the school board, Ranma should be able to avoid hot water and any unpleasantness."

"Ya could 'a just let me stay where I was," grumbled Ranma, picking at the strap of the bra he was currently being forced to wear. It should also be noted that he was actually a she at that moment in time and wearing a rather cutesy looking school uniform. A moment later her hand was gently batted away from where he was fiddling by his mother.

"Don't fiddle with your underwear, Ranma," said Nodoka absently. "It's unseemly."

"Yeah, yeah," grumbled Ranma, but she made no motion to start fiddling with it again even if it did itch something fierce.

"You know why we're here, boy," rumbled Genma. "It's because you haven't dealt with those girls that follow you around."

"And who got me stuck with them?" snapped Ranma, taking half a step towards her pop and clenching her fists before relaxing again when she saw his mother frown at her.

"It's easily dealt with, boy," said Genma, taking on his 'wise sensei' air, which was about as convincing as a three thousand yen note. "Just marry Akane and the whole mess will just go away."

"Is that before or after the others trash half of Tokyo to try and stop me?" shot back Ranma in a caustic tone of voice. "Stupid old man. If you wanted me to marry Akane then why'd ya get me hitched to all the other too?"

"Enough of that," said Nodoka, stopping them both before they came to blows in their usual fashion of dealing with a disagreement. "Those girls will have to be dealt with but that is your responsibility, Genma, not Ranma's. You are the head of the clan."

"Well, that's me screwed," muttered Ranma.

"Now, now, Ranma," said Nodoka. "I'm sure Genma will think of something."

The last was said while giving Genma a piercing stare that had him sweating bullets. Ranma found it highly amusing, but . . .

"I'll believe it when I see it, mom," she said, before looking at the clock. "Gotta go or I'll be late," she finished, with a distinct lack of enthusiasm in her voice.

"Have a nice day at school, dear," said Nodoka, handing Ranma her lunch box.

* * *

Ranma felt like a complete berk as she walked to school. It was one thing to wear the skimpy stuff to distract Happosai or win a challenge, but wearing this cutesy crap . . . that was something else altogether. Even if she had been born a real girl - and she shuddered at that thought - she'd still hate this crap. And she was going to punt the next boy who stopped and stared at her into orbit. And the next man? He was taking a trip to the moon. Possibly Mars if she got pissed off enough.

And it just felt weird to not have Akane with her when she was walking to school. Every day for the last two years, she'd gone to school with Akane, and she'd got used to having her there, and now she wasn't. Normally they'd be walking along - her on the ground, him on the fence - and teasing each other all the way. This was just no fun at all. It was just boring. Endlessly boring.

On the plus side, there was no random bike-of-doom attack coming along any time soon. That was one thing that gotten real old, real fast. And it had always pissed Akane off, too, when Shampoo got grabby afterwards.

Ranma's head jerked up when she heard a car's horn blaring away. What she saw just about made her blood run cold. Some girl was just strolling across the road, day-dreaming, and completely missing the fact that she was about to get hit by a fairly large sports car. Instinctively, she gathered her ki and leapt in front of her, then in one smooth movement she grabbed hold of the girl and leapt away from the car. The girl looked positively seasick as Ranma put her down.

"Look where you're going, will ya?" said Ranma. "Get yourself killed if you pull stunts like that.

"Uh, thanks," said the girl as the slightly green tint to her complexion started to fade. She still looked a bit out of it, though.

Ranma snorted and took off again, heading to school. Wasn't her problem if the girl got herself smashed by a car. Then again, as soon as that thought passed through her mind, she had the strange feeling that it _was_ her problem for some reason. Weird. She dismissed the thought from her mind. She had more important things to be dealing with right now than some stupid girl who didn't look where she was walking.

* * *

The school was depressingly normal. She'd been able to tell that from the moment she set foot on its grounds. The only vaguely strange thing about it was that it adjoined a junior high school, and to be honest Ranma had no idea how strange that really was. Wasn't like she'd attended school all that regularly when she was training with pop really. A few months here and there before they moved on at best normally. About the longest she'd managed was those few months at junior high with Ryoga and she'd spent most of that time fighting with pig-boy.

Not that she minded spending his school-time in a good fight. Not at all.

"Why don't you tell the class a little about yourself?" said the teacher, looking rather bored with whole procedure.

"I'm Ranma Saotome, heir to the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts," said Ranma, looking over the class. None of them looked like martial artists - they all looked weak and scrawny. Oh well. No new sparring partners to be had here. He'd have to wait for Ryoga to turn up like he always did before he could get a good fight. They were all staring at her too but she just stared right on back till they looked away. Like she was gonna get all uncomfortable because people stared at her.

"Oh," said the teacher weakly. "Martial arts?"

Oh yes. She'd made the connection. Former Furinkan student and martial artist. Generally not good for the health of the school to have one of those around.

"Yeah," said Ranma. "I'm a martial artist. Best at the school too."

That last part was added purely to see the teacher's reaction. And the way the blood drained from her face? Very much worth the effort.

"Right," she said weakly. "That's nice. Why don't you sit down and we'll start the day."

Lessons were as boring and incomprehensible as ever. She tried, she really did, but school just was not her thing at all. As much effort as she put in, her concentration eventually drifted onto more interesting things. Which, in the case of school, is pretty much everything.

* * *

Ranma settled down, leaning against a large tree and sitting in its shadow, as she opened her lunch box. Ah, food. Best part of the school day as far as she was concerned. Well, maybe second to the end-of-day bell. It was a close thing really. No more school for a day versus filling her stomach. Very tough choice that. Ah well. It wasn't all that important. And with that decided, she began to shovel the contents of the lunch box into her mouth at ridiculous speeds.

"Wow, you eat even faster than I do," said the girl she'd saved earlier on in the day.

Ranma swallowed down the mouthful she was chewing at that moment and looked up. "Yeah, part of my martial arts training," she said.

And then Ranma's hand shot out and caught the baseball that had been about to smash into the side of the girl's head.

"You really need to pay more attention to the world around you," chided Ranma gently. She couldn't quite bring herself to scold the girl this time. It'd be like kicking a puppy or something.

"Sorry," gulped the girl eyeing the ball nervously. "But, wow, you're fast."

Ranma shrugged and lobbed the ball back over to the boys who were playing baseball. "It's all in the training."

"If you say so," said the girl dubiously. And then her face lit up in a bright smile, "I'm Usagi Tsukino."

"Ranma Saotome," said Ranma. "How come yer talking to me? Everyone else has been avoiding me like I have the plague or something."

Usagi frowned. "Why are they doing that?"

"Think they're scared of me or something," said Ranma. "Probably because I'm from Furinkan."

"You're from that school that got trashed by the students?" asked Usagi, her eyes wide and sparkling.

"Well . . . yeah," said Ranma, scratching the base of her pigtail. "It was mostly Ryoga and those stupid Shi Shi Hokodens of his, though. Stupid pig-boy and his stupid temper tantrums."

"That's so cool!" said Usagi. "Do you think he'll wreck my school?"

Ranma blinked. Well, she hadn't been expecting that reaction. "Uh . . . I doubt it," she said. "There ain't no loonies here to set him off and I doubt he'd attack me looking like this."

Usagi pouted for a moment. "Hey, what do you mean 'looking like this'?"

"He's, uh, not too bright, and he has a thing about fighting girls," said Ranma. "Normally I can get him to fight me easy enough . . . but dressed up like this it's kinda not gonna happen."

And that was the truth. By the time Ryoga realised that she was Ranma he'd be on the other side of the world again. He was nothing if not easily fooled, that boy. Usagi looked disbelieving for a moment and then she burst out laughing. Ranma couldn't help but join her in her laughter. It was just so utterly ridiculous that Ryoga would still instinctively pull his punches against her when she was in female form even though he knew damn well that she could still fight plenty well enough.

* * *

The rest of the school day after lunch proceeded pretty much the same way as the school day before lunch. Boring lessons, boring teachers, almost total indifference to the whole thing on Ranma's part, and the other students avoiding the hell out of her. It was pretty pathetic really. These kids had all the backbone of a slug. Even Mr. Tendo wasn't this utterly weak. Well, except for when Happosai was involved; then he was even worse. It really wasn't long before she started to feel utter disdain for the whole lot of them. It's one thing to not be able to fight but it's something else entirely to be a coward.

When the day ended, she strolled out, given a wide berth by all of her fellow high-school pupils, fully expecting to stroll on home alone and then get some katas and maybe some sparring with pop in. Maybe she'd have even seen about getting in touch with the tomboy and see how things were going back in Nerima. But she was met by an incredibly cheerful Usagi who dragged her off on a tour of Juuban's shopping centres before stopping off at the local arcade for a few goes at the Sailor V game.

And that was where they stood now, with Usagi watching as Ranma tore through the game, putting her martial arts reflexes to a rather unexpected use.

"You're so good!" said Usagi. "So Sailor V morphs . . . "

"Yup. You've only got a split-second to do it," said Ranma, absent-mindedly. "And then you have to hit them with the killer move just at the right time. Not that hard, really."

It wasn't so bad, really. She'd always thought that computer games were a little silly, and they didn't compare to the real fights she got into, but they weren't a total loss, it seemed. Better than putting up the old man trying to order her to go marry Akane right this minute, anyway.

"Usagi, you're here!" called out a voice from near the arcade's entrance. Sounded like another girl around Usagi's age, but Ranma wasn't going to break her concentration to check.

"Ami!" called out Usagi in return. Sounded like she'd been right, anyway.

The other girl moved closer and the hairs on the back of Ranma's neck stood straight up. Oh no, she knew that feeling . . . And the mantra began in her mind, 'don't look, don't look, don't look . . . '.

"She's so good at that game . . . " said the new girl, Ami.

"Usagi, who's your friend?" asked a male voice from near where Ami was stood. "Same school?"

"I'm Ranma," said Ranma, keeping her eyes fixed firmly forwards and not even flickering to where she just knew there was a demon spawned straight from the pits to torment her; sorta like the Kunos, really. "Just started at the high school next to Usagi's school."

"Hi!" said the male voice. "My name's Motoki."

"Your name's Motoki?" asked Usagi. "Guess I never knew it before."

And still the mantra ran through Ranma's mind as her hands flew over the controls of the arcade game. 'Don't look, don't look, don't look . . . '

The conversation moved on and the guy, Motoki, drifted off as Usagi and Ami drifted off into talking about wedding dresses. Now that brought back some memories. The tomboy had scrubbed up pretty nice when it came down to it before those lunatics blew the wedding up. The momentary distraction of thinking about what Akane had looked like all dressed up for a wedding was enough to delay her next move enough to get her avatar killed. Bah.

All her muscles tensed up as she faced the prospect of coming face to face with one of the devil's own. She didn't want to but she wouldn't turn away from a challenge. No way, no how. It wouldn't be much fun to explain just why she was going nuts because of some stupid animal but she could deal with that. Really, she could. It wasn't like one stupid ca-ca-feline would drive her into the neko-ken.

She slowly turned around to face it and there it was. In the hands of a cute teenage girl who actually looked vaguely like Akane - minus the tomboy stuff, she hastened to add - was the black-furred monster. The fear spiked up, but she controlled it and funnelled it away into her ki to fuel her strength. One demon would not drive her nuts if she had any say in it! And then her fear dwindled away as she looked into the beast's eyes. Now that was new. She tentatively reached out and clumsily stroked the thing's head. Nothing.

"This is weird," she muttered.

"What's weird?" asked the Akane-lookalike.

"Me and ca-ca-felines don't mix," said Ranma, looking away from the thing. "Not normally."

"Ailurophobe?" asked Ami

"Ailuro-wha?" said Ranma, her brow scrunched in concentration as she tried to figure out what the hell Ami had just said. Usagi looked to be doing something similar.

"Someone who has a fear of cats," said Ami, patiently.

"Huh," said Ranma. "Yeah, what you said, I guess."

"Why would you be scared of kitties?" asked Usagi, looking scandalised.

"Bad experience when I was a kid," murmured Ranma. No way was she telling them about the neko-ken. No way.

One frantic apology later - it would have been impossible to hold anything against Usagi anyway; she was just too damned nice - and they left the arcade and Ranma tagged along as they strolled around Juuban. It was nice to be able to do something so normal, to be honest. Whenever she'd tried to have a peaceful, relaxing time back in Nerima it had always, always gone wrong. She'd get bored of the normality eventually, probably fairly quickly, but she could always hop back over to Nerima for a fix of insanity when she felt the need. The presence of the thing was just creepy though. Even if it didn't quite bring the same mind-numbing fear, it was still creepy.

Eventually the conversation took a more interesting turn as they approached the mall. Or a more usual turn for someone who'd lived Ranma's life. "Guess what!" said Ami. "I heard a strange rumour. You guys know the bridal shop outside the mall?"

"Yeah," said Usagi. "Naru was just there."

By that time they were standing outside the shop they were talking about.

"Well, it's supposed to be haunted."

"Nice dress on that mannequin," said Ranma. "Sorta like the one Akane wore."

"Who's Akane?" asked Usagi, her face a picture of curiousity.

"She's, um, a friend of mine," said Ranma. "She lives in Nerima."

"Married?"

"Actually, no," a hint of anger showing in her voice. "Some idiots crashed the wedding and messed everything up. And, boy, was she ever pissed."

"No wonder," cried Usagi. "I . . . oh, I don't know what I'd do but it'd be bad!"

Ranma smirked. "Well, they got what was coming to them, believe me. So is this the haunted shop, huh?"

"That's right," said Ami. "It's haunted by the ghost of a dead bride. That mannequin floats around here after midnight. If there's a guy around, it'll seduce him."

"A ghost?" asked Usagi.

"If a bride buys her dress here, the ghost will possess her," said Ami. "Her marriage will be doomed."

"Definitely checking the label before my wedding," decided Ranma out loud.

"You're getting married?" asked Usagi, hearts in her eyes.

"Eventually," said Ranma, rolling her eyes. "It was arranged by my idiot of a father."

"They still do that?" asked Ami, looking horrified.

Ranma shrugged. "My pop does," she said. "You get used to it after a while. There are no depths of idiocy to which he will not sink given time."

And that pretty much brought that conversation to a grinding halt. She supposed that it generally wasn't regarded as polite to insult one's father in public, but they'd soon get used to it if they became friends. Everyone who ever met her pop ended up cursing him anyway.

* * *

"You know, this place looks familiar," said Ranma as they approached the shrine. "I'm sure I've been here before."

"Maybe Rei will remember you," said Usagi cheerfully.

Ranma really, really doubted that this Rei would remember him in his current form but it wasn't like it could hurt. And if his pop had ripped the place off - which she doubted, but you never know with him, at least they wouldn't immediately come after her with her being the wrong sex at the moment. The old man who waved them in certainly didn't seem to recognise her anyway. He led them over to where a long-haired girl was feeding some crows.

"Rei, you've got visitors," he said. Then as the girl turned to face them, "and they're such pretty things! Want a job at my temple?"

"GRANDPA!"

Ranma gave the old man a measuring glare as Usagi giggled. Weird old man but he was no Happosai, that much was certain. She couldn't shake that weird sense of familiarity she was feeling either. Well, anyway, the old man soon skedaddled, followed all the while by the burning glare of his granddaughter, and a conversation started up about the haunted bridal shop.

"A haunted bridal shop?" asked the shrine maiden. "A dead bride's ghost? Sounds suspicious."

"Bunny's friend's cousin," said Ami. "Her fiancée might have been seduced . . . "

"Ghost or no ghost . . . if he gave into temptation it's his own fault!" sniffed Rei.

"Come on, Rei," said Usagi.

"I don't trust guys," said Rei, looking rather adamant on that position.

"Now that sounds familiar," said Ranma. "Don't suppose you're related to the Tendo family?"

"No, why?"

"Just asking," said Ranma. "Sounds like something Akane would say. Anyway, I think I'll be going. This whole ghost thing is all over my head. See ya later."

And with that she waved goodbye, a gesture that was returned, and left. It wasn't really over her head but the last thing she needed was to get involved in that sort of stuff right now. Mom wouldn't be pleased if she trashed another school.

* * *

Ranma quickly returned home and scarfed down some dinner before changing into his usual attire of choice and heading out. Had to get the lay of the land so he wouldn't run into a dead end or get lost in the middle of a fight, after all. Well, he tried to be a he. Approximately fifteen minutes after leaving the house a fire hydrant popped its lid next to him and he became a she once more. She just sighed and shook her first at the heavens. Damn curse wouldn't be half as much of a pain if she wasn't such a water magnet.

Ranma spent quite some time exploring, a lot of it jumping from roof-top to roof-top to get the aerial perspective before she grew thirsty and dropped down from the roof-top she was on to buy a bottle of water from a nearby vending machine. What happened at that point was something that Ranma would never be quite able to recollect properly. What she did remember was a series of disconnected images and feelings, a blond man, a feeling of fear and then panic, a wedding dress, and then another man in a tuxedo that changed into a girl.

"I won't let you dress up like a virgin bride and tempt men!" cried the man who turned into a woman, a woman wearing an outfit that would have scandalised Ranma's mother for sure. "On behalf of the moon, you're punished."

"You can't use people. Your brains should be used to help people," said another girl who was behind and to the left of the gender-shifter, wearing a similarly skimpy outfit. "You're punished. I'll cool your head with Mercury power."

"I won't let you take advantage of women!" cried the other girl, behind and to the right of the gender-shifter. "Here's the Mars power flame of anger! I'll punish you in high heels."

Ranma looked down at herself . . . and she was wearing a wedding dress. A wedding dress that looked an awful lot like the one Akane had wore. And with that realisation a terrible rage welled up in Ranma like she hadn't felt since Phoenix Mountain. This was just too damn much. First the failed wedding, then her other fiancées going nuts trying to drive her away from Akane, and then . . . then _this. _Someone was going to pay and pay _dearly_ for this. Something foreign and powerful welled up in her and she instinctively clutched onto it. This power, this was what she needed, she knew that without thought.

And then she transformed. It was like nothing she'd ever felt before. It was like having pure power injected into her system and she could feel her ki reserves growing exponentially as the transformation worked through her. It wasn't just her ki either, she could feel something . . . something she couldn't define, something that felt like a home that had long since been lost to her and was now returned. Memories, broken and disjointed as they were, flooded into her mind and she knew what she was even if she couldn't explain the whys and hows of it. She was Sailor Jupiter.

The man who stood next to her was irrelevant and Ranma batted him across the room without any real thought or attention. The demon in the wedding dress was something else entirely and all her instincts cried out to destroy it quickly before it could harm the princess. Ranma leapt at her with all the speed she could muster and lashed out with a series of powerful punches and kicks aimed at the vulnerable points on its body. As the demon fell to the ground crippled she stamped down on its neck and killed it.

"Heh. That's just my shadow," called out a male voice from the top of a nearby building. "I'm over here."

Ranma's response was immediate and instinctual, her mind still going on the new instincts that had been crammed into it by the transformation. She leapt up from her standing position and landed lightly next to the man before launching into a senshi transformation powered Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken that blasted the man across the roof and bounced him off a wall before he collapsed to the ground groaning. What came after that was pure instinct and came from the source of power that Ranma had clutched onto.

"My protector, Jupiter, call on a storm," she cried. "Thunder and lightning SHOWER DOWN!"

What followed next was pretty disgusting to be honest. Massive bolts of lightning thundered down from the sky and repeatedly struck the guy in the militaryesque uniform till there was little more than a greasy spot and a few scraps of clothing left where he had been. That wasn't so bad . . . it was more the intermediate stages of scorched body and the screams of pain that were the problem. Ranma ended up having to turn away as her stomach churned. The guy was evil, no doubt, but this didn't sit well with her at all. She was a martial artist, not some sort of psycho killer. Killing a demon is one thing but this guy was . . . had been . . . human. What the hell was she becoming?

Then she looked down and the male voice in her head cried out as her masculine pride took yet another body blow. What the bloody hell was she wearing? It was like her Happosai collection crossed with her school uniform to produce the most abominable piece of clothing the world had ever seen. And she'd thought she couldn't sink any lower than the bunny suit!

She just sighed. Pop'd always said that the life of a martial artists was fraught with peril but she'd never thought he meant stuff like this.

"Wow, you're a great fighter!"

"Yeah," said Ranma in a hollow tone of voice. "I'm the best."

And as pumped up as she was at that moment, she probably wasn't exaggerating either. Even the old letch and the old ghoul would have been hard-pressed to take her on with the amount of power that had just been shoved into her system. Oh, they had a few neat tricks she'd have a hard time dealing with, but she had 'em beat all ends up on power as she was.

A comforting hand landed on her should and squeezed gently. "I know it's hard," said Usagi - somehow, she just knew it was Usagi now. "But these things have to be stopped and we're the people who've been given the power."

"That wasn't a thing," snapped Ranma. "That was a person. A human."

"A person who has been draining people to the point of death for his masters," said Ami.

The mention of that brought another slew of images to the forefront of Ranma's mind till she forcibly shut the stream off. "I didn't know that," said Ranma. "I just acted on instinct. Kill him before he could threaten the princess."

And those instincts were going to be thoroughly squashed very soon if she had any say in the matter. No way was she going around prepped to kill without conscious decision. She'd trained way too damn long to lose control like that.

"You're one of us now, Ranma," said Usagi. "If you need someone to talk to, we're here."

She . . . that felt right, dammit.

"We need to meet somewhere private tomorrow," said Ranma. "I have some stuff I need to tell you guys."

She really couldn't justify hiding things like her curse from them now. They were, well, she wasn't exactly sure what they were to her, but it was something important, or at least it had been something important in her last life. And that was something else that just blew her mind. She had a previous life. Gods above but she'd never really believed in reincarnation before. And anyway, hiding the curse _never _worked.

"Tomorrow at the shrine then," said Rei. "We'll have privacy there."

The hissing sound of the automatic doors sliding open drew all their attention at that point. It was the thing that didn't scare her for some reason. And it was carrying something in its mouth that it promptly dropped in front of the door with a clang.

"Luna?" asked Usagi.

"Sailor Moon, we have found four scouts," said Luna. "You must be their leader and protect the princess and the ginzuishou."

Ranma's eyes widened to roughly the dimensions of a Saotome-size dinner plate as the thing spoke. "It speaks?" she asked dumbly.

"Of course I speak," said Luna sniffily. "What do you think I am? Some common alley cat?"

Ranma back-pedalled so fast you could almost hear the sonic boom. "No, no, no! Of course not," she babbled.

Usagi scooped Luna up into her arms before she could say anything else. "Stop it, Luna," she scolded gently. "Ranma's afraid of cats. You're scaring her."

"I ain't afraid of nuthin'," muttered Ranma, but no-one believed her.

They dispersed at that point to avoid the police. Not that it was very difficult. Even the untrained could roof-hop easily in this getup. As she approached home, she dropped her transformation.

"Ah, hell," muttered Ranma looking at the returned wedding dress. "How'm I gonna explain this?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Ranma ducked under his pop's roundhouse kick and landed a series of punches to his gut before backing away again and out of his range. The old man staggered back a couple of steps before responding with a jumping kick that Ranma met in mid-air with a flurry of kicks and punches that was greeted with an answering series of blocks and strikes that kept both fighters from landing a blow before they passed each other and landed facing away from each other.

Ranma immediately spun around and used his forearm to deflect the straight punch that his pop had aimed at his head before dropping down to the ground and launching a sweep kick that Genma hopped over. Before he could jump back up onto his feet to carry the fight to Genma, the man was on him with a volley of quickly thrown punches that forced Ranma into an awkward defensive position half-crouched on the ground with no leverage to speak of.

Eventually, despite some blinding defensive work by Ranma, his defensives were breached and Genma landed a kick to the ribs that knocked him across the yard and knocked the wind out of him.

"You're getting soft, boy," said Genma. "Want me to go find that wedding dress so you can go find a husband?"

It was a stupid, ill thought out insult, but it was enough to get seriously under Ranma's skin after what happened last night. He exploded forwards in a blur of motion, launching attacks at a ferocious pace that had Genma on the back foot right from the onset. It was a testament to the man's skill in the art that his defences held as long as they did facing such an onslaught from a much, much faster opponent, but the end was inevitable. Ranma broke through Genma's defences and clocked him flush on the jaw with a powerful roundhouse kick that lifted him clear off his feet and sent him flying across the yard till he collided with the back wall with meaty thud.

"So who's going soft again, pop?" taunted Ranma but Genma was far too busy counting the miniature pandas dancing around his head to answer. "Feh. Stupid panda."

With that, Ranma span on his heel and stalked back into the house. Bringing up the wedding dress raised a whole lot of stuff that Ranma really, really didn't want to think about.

"Did you really have to hit him so hard, son?" asked Nodoka.

"Shouldn't 'a brought up the wedding dress," grumbled Ranma as he headed for the bathroom. Maybe a good soak would make him feel better. Times like this, he wished pig-boy was around. A good fight with him was always good for working some frustrations out.

* * *

When Ranma returned from the bath all dressed up in her school uniform and ready for the day, she found her mother focussing all her attention on the newspaper while pop stuffed his face. Normal day really. Ranma sat down at the table was soon embroiled in the usual morning battle with her pop over the food. 

"Do you know anything about this ginzuishou, Ranma?" asked her mother, causing Ranma to drop her chopsticks in surprise.

"Wha . . . heh, heh, why'd you expect me to know something about that?" asked Ranma, scratching at the base of her pigtail.

"Oh, I don't know," said Nodoka. "You just seem to end up getting involved in that sort of strangeness sooner or later."

"Heh, yeah," said Ranma, managing to stop herself scratching at her pigtail. "Where'd you hear about it anyway?"

"It's in the newspaper," said Nodoka. "That Tuxedo Mask boy has written into the newspaper office about how it's worth some ridiculous amount of money and it's supposedly in this city somewhere."

"He's done what?" yelped Ranma before she got herself back under control. "Is there anything else in the article?"

"Some pictures of those Sailor V and Sailor Moon girls," said Nodoka. "And an article wondering if they're involved."

"Any mention of others?" asked Ranma. "Sailor Jupiter?"

God, she hoped not.

"No, why do you ask?"

"No reason," blurted out Ranma before going back to her food, not that there was much left courtesy of the fat old panda man.

"Hmm," said Nodoka. "You know, this Tuxedo Mask seems to be quite manly . . . if you were a real girl . . . "

"MOM!"

"NODOKA!"

* * *

Ranma ran into Ami on the way to school and they made their way in, making small-talk as they went. It wasn't the easiest thing in the world considering that they had almost nothing in common outside of the magical girl thing, but they managed. Mostly. Anyway, it wasn't that long before they ran into Usagi. 

"Hi, Ami!" said Usagi looking far too cheerful for the time of day for Ranma's tastes. "Hi, Ranma!"

"Hi, Usagi!" said Ami, before looking at her watch. "Wow, you're on time."

"Yo," said Ranma. She couldn't muster the will for much more.

"This dream woke me up early," said Usagi.

"What dream?" asked Ami.

"It was really weird . . . " said Usagi before trailing off as a fairly tall guy with dark hair approached them.

"Hey, you," said the guy, looking at Usagi and pretty much ignoring the rest of them. "Shouldn't you be in school?"

Usagi's response was one that Ranma would have been proud of. A true masterpiece of an aggravating facial expression. She pulled her lips wide and got impressive length on her tongue as she contorted her face. "Nyah! Get off my back!"

The guy didn't react much to that beyond turning on his heel and walking off. Lame. Akane was way more fun to taunt than that.

"So who was that?" asked Ranma.

"Just some jerk I run into a lot," said Usagi, a light blush appearing on her features that was very much at odds with her words and slightly disdainful facial expression.

It was just too easy. Ranma couldn't help herself . . .

"Your face is all red, Usagi," said Ranma in a lilting tone of voice. "I think someone has a crush . . . "

"I do not!"

"Wow . . . He goes to that super-elite prep school," said Ami. "You actually know that guy?"

"Who, Mamoru?" asked Usagi. "You can have him . . . he's a total dork anyway."

"I'd rather be tied up and thrown in a pit of starving ca-ca-those things," said Ranma, her face settling into a frown.

The others gawked at her with expressions of utter disbelief on their faces. You'd think they'd never heard of something like that before or something!

* * *

The school day passed much the same way as the last in that no-one seemed to dare speak directly to Ranma outside of the teachers. It was beginning to really grate on her nerves by the end of the day. If it wasn't for Usagi and Ami at lunch she'd have had no-one to talk to at all. While that wasn't the same as having the tomboy and Ucchan around, it was better than nothing. And, for someone like Ranma, having no-one to talk to at school would have been downright painful. School was bad enough, but school without friends to alleviate the boredom? That was the stuff nightmares were made of in Ranma's opinion. 

Thankfully, like all things, it eventually came to an end and Ranma was free of school for another day. She didn't even bother to try and keep up the pretence of normality and jumped out of a third floor window as soon as the bell rang to signify the end of the last lesson of the day. Hell with it. If they couldn't handle it, well, that was their problem, not hers. Wasn't like she really cared what people thought about her anyway outside of a select few.

She met up with Ami and Usagi as they exited their school and together they left the area, making small-talk as they went. It seemed that tux-boy's appearance in the newspaper was pretty much the talk of the day. Not a huge surprise all things considered with the amount of money the newspaper said the damn crystal was worth. Anyway, they met up with Rei and Luna at the arcade – the idea of a hellspawn that could think and talk like a real person still blew Ranma's mind – and then they all made their way to the shrine.

"Do you have a bathroom I can use or something?" asked Ranma as they entered the shrine. "I kinda need to change my clothes."

Rei gave her a strange look but she escorted Ranma to a small bathroom where Ranma quickly pulled some of her usual Chinese silks and a pair of boxers out of wherever stuff went when you used the hidden weapons techniques and changed into them. Damn but was it ever a relief to be out of that nightmarish stuff her mother had passed off on her as underwear. With that done, she stuffed her school uniform away into that nether-world and pulled out a thermos of warm water. Then she took a deep, steadying breath – boy, did she ever hate revealing her curse to anyone – and headed back to where the others had settled in.

"I suppose you girls are as likely as anyone to understand this," said Ranma, getting their attention. "A couple years back I visited a place in China called Jusenkyo with my pop on a training trip. We didn't know at the time, but it's a cursed place. You fall in one of the springs and you take the form of whatever drowned in it last."

"You have a curse?" asked Usagi, eyes wide.

"Yeah," said Ranma. "Cold water activates it, hot water reverts me to my real body."

And then she twisted the thermos open and poured the water over her head, triggering the transformation.

"I'm Ranma Saotome," he said, scratching at the base of his pigtail. "Sorry 'bout this."

The girls stared, their eyes taking on a somewhat glazed appearance. Ranma blinked. Well, he supposed it was a bit of a shock even for magical girls. This was a bit of an extreme reaction though.

"This isn't possible!" blurted Luna. "You can't be male!"

"I kinda disagree," said Ranma with a smirk.

"But . . . you . . . "

"I'm a guy," said Ranma. "Got a problem with that?"

"No problem," said Usagi quickly. "No problem at all. Right, girls?"

"Right," echoed the others.

"But the magic shouldn't work for a male!" said Luna, the pitch of her voice rising all the while. "It shouldn't be possible!"

Ranma shrugged his shoulders. "Lotta stuff ain't supposed to be possible but it still happens," he said. "Most people wouldn't think this magical girl crap is possible but here we are. The curses are physically complete for what that's worth."

"B . . . but . . ." sputtered Luna, managing to look utterly lost, quite an achievement with a cat's facial features.

"I'd like to know more about this curse," said Rei. Seeing Ranma's questioning look, she continued, "it's the sort of thing I might come across in my duties as a shrine maiden and it would be nice to be prepared."

"Jusenkyo curses are supposed to be real rare," said Ranma. "But I'll tell ya about them if ya want. They're not all that complicated really."

"Yes, well, you can talk about that later," said Luna. "We have to deal with the mess that Tuxedo Mask has created right now."

"The newspaper stuff, right?" asked Ranma. "What's the big deal? S'not like someone's gonna find the ginzuishou under their bed or anything."

"What's the . . . " sputtered Luna. "We've got the whole nation trying to find a priceless magical artefact that we need to defeat the enemy and you ask what the big deal is?"

"Well, yeah," said Ranma. "So say someone finds it. So what? We can just steal it off 'em. I mean, it's really ours anyway, right?"

"Well, yes," said Luna. "But I doubt it would be that easy."

"Feh," said Ranma. "Course it would. Just gotta slip in and grab it. Easy."

The glare Luna gave him probably wouldn't have been very intimidating to a normal person, but to someone with the neko-ken . . . it worked all right. Ranma shut up. The rest of her questions could wait till the thing stopped glaring at him like that. Yup, they could wait.

"Luna, this has to be the work of the enemy," said Ami. "We have to do something – the princess could be in danger."

"I know," said Luna. "I can't believe this mess. I don't want to think Tuxedo Mask's an enemy, but . . . "

"Do we even know who the enemy is?" asked Ranma.

"I'm working on it," said Luna. "I've got a hunch about the enemy . . . if the enemy is who I think it is . . . "

"Huh?" said Usagi. "Luna?"

"And if the crystal falls into those hands, there is no hope," finished Luna.

"Whose hands?" asked Ami.

"Luna! No hope?" asked Usagi. "Just how powerful is the ginzuishou?"

"Powerful enough to cure a curse?" asked Ranma hopefully.

"Powerful enough to destroy an entire planet," said Luna.

"Oh my," said Ami, sounding eerily like Kasumi. "How are we supposed to protect something so powerful?"

"That is what you were chosen for, to protect the princess and the ginzuishou," said Luna. "It is your destiny. It is what I was sent from the moon to awaken you for."

"Sent from the moon to awaken us . . . " said Usagi looking absolutely gobsmacked, an expression the rest of them shared. "You mean, Luna . . . you're from the moon?"

"It's a long story," said Luna. "I'll tell you everything when the time is right. But for now, we need to find the princess and Tuxedo Mask."

"Hey," said Ranma. "I want to hear the story _now_. Or at least the part that explains why I've been turned into some sort of magical girl!"

"You're not ready to hear that yet," said Luna.

"You have no idea why, do you?" asked Ranma.

". . . no . . . "

* * *

Ranma grumbled to himself as he roof-hopped his way over to Nerima. Stupid cat, stupid magical girl transformation, and stupid . . . well, stupid everything. He did not want to be a damn magical girl. Ever. Period. Not in this life. Hell, not in the next, either, if he had any say in it. He didn't care if it had felt right at the time, it was just _wrong_. The curse was bad enough, even if he'd long since stopped hating it, but to turn into a magical girl? Some man! 

But here he was, Sailor Jupiter, and it didn't seem that there was a damn thing he could do about it. Sure, he could ignore it, and just walk away. But the magic had chosen him and would not choose another according to that talking ca-ca-that thing. And could he really walk away from the whole mess and leave a bunch of untrained teenage girls to fight a load of apparently very dangerous demons and their masters? It would go against everything he believed in to walk away like that.

And the stuff they'd given him . . . could it look more girly? Between the rod thing and the phone thing he felt even less masculine than he had during that whole cheerleading challenge thing carrying them around, but that damn talking demon lookalike had glared at him again and he'd babbled all sorts of promises. Stupid neko-ken.

It didn't take long for Ranma to make his way to the Tendo home – he knew the way there off by heart by the time he'd been moved away to Juuban – and he soon dropped in over the wall, finding a rather bored looking Mr. Tendo sat outside the house smoking a pipe and staring into space.

"Hey, Mr. Tendo," said Ranma.

"Ranma!" cried out Mr. Tendo, his eyes starting to water. "You've come back!"

"Just visiting," said Ranma, his hands up in a warding position. Last thing he wanted was for Mr. Tendo to get _too_ happy and give him one of those moustache rubs of his; those'd been bad enough when he was stuck as a six year old kid. As it was, Mr. Tendo grabbed onto him in a glomp worthy of Shampoo a moment later.

"Oh, Ranma," cried Soun. "You've come to marry my Akane, haven't you?"

"Wasn't really in my plans for the day," managed Ranma in-between squeezes of his rib-cage.

And the grip tightened. There were times when Ranma really did wonder if Mr. Tendo had any Amazon ancestors because Shampoo was the only one who was worse than him when he got like this.

"But family honour!"

Okay, that was enough for one day. Ranma managed to tap a couple of pressure points in Mr. Tendo's wrists and then he flipped away, kicking off Mr. Tendo's chest for leverage. Guy didn't even budge; he was strong, Ranma had to give him that, even if he'd never seen Mr. Tendo train. Or fight. Or do much more than play shogi and cry. Ever.

"I'm just here to see Akane," said Ranma with a smirk as Mr. Tendo blinked and tried to figure out what had just happened. "She in?"

"She's in her room doing her homework," said Mr. Tendo. And then he shouted after Ranma as the boy turned on his heel and jogged into the house to see Akane. "I can have a priest here inside the hour if you change your mind!"

Ranma developed a convenient case of temporary deafness for that last part. One attempt at forcing him into getting married was enough for one lifetime, he reckoned.

* * *

Ranma hopped from foot to foot outside Akane's door for a just a moment before finally knocking on it. Damn but it felt weird now that he didn't actually live here anymore. 

"Come in," came Akane's voice from the other side of the door a few seconds after he'd knocked.

"Hey, Akane," said Ranma as he slid her bedroom door open. Ranma noticed that Akane's room hadn't changed a bit since he'd moved back to his mom's as soon as he opened the door. His fingers still itched with the urge to clean the clutter away when he saw things like the weights she used in a heap on the floor near her wardrobe.

"Ranma!" called out Akane from where she curled up on her bed in a shirt and pair of shorts reading a book of some description. "You've come back!"

"Yeah," said Ranma, scratching at the base of his pigtail. "Thought I should, you know. Kinda boring in Juuban really; no martial artists there to speak of."

"Only you would think somewhere was boring because there weren't any martial artists there," said Akane, uncurling and rising to a sitting position with her bare lower legs dangling off the edge of the bed.

"Hey!" cried Ranma. "Pop would think it was boring too, you know!"

"Okay then," said Akane, her lips curving into a smile. "Only a Saotome would think somewhere was boring because there wasn't any martial artists there."

"Well," said Ranma, scratching at his neck in thought. "Okay. Probably true. Wouldn't you think it was boring though?"

Akane's smile instantly dissolved into a scowl that almost had Ranma taking a step backwards. "No," she said, her voice snappish. "That'd mean no Kuno or Amazons to pester me."

Ranma's brow furrowed in consternation. "Shampoo been bugging you?" he asked.

"No," said Akane her scowl growing. "No more than normal anyway. Apparently, I don't warrant their attention when you're not here."

"Hey, it could be worse," said Ranma. "At least they're not playing with your memory again or nothing. S'not like there's much anyone could do to stop Cologne if she decided to try that."

He decided it would be best to leave out the fact that Shampoo could pretty much do it to Akane at will as well. See, he wasn't entirely dim-witted, and he'd been smacked enough times for saying Akane'd get beaten easy by Shampoo to get that message.

That seemed to be the right thing to say as Akane's scowl dissipated slightly. "Yeah," she said. "That's true. She's too good for us to stop, I suppose."

Ranma shrugged. "She's good," he said simply. "So how're things here? S'Kuno still causing trouble?"

"Kuno's been unbearable," said Akane. "He's convinced himself that he defeated you and he's been strutting around ever since spouting off speeches at anyone he can get to stay still long enough."

Ranma was torn between marching off there and then to beat the living hell out of Kuno on general principles and just laughing at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. He'd beaten Kuno so many times now that it was just boring; he could barely bring himself to care that the idiot thought he'd beaten him.

"Yeah," said Akane. "I thought you'd feel like that, but you don't have to deal with him; he's more of a pain than ever."

"Huh?"

"It's not exactly hard to tell what you're feeling," said Akane. "Remember the Gambler King?"

"Hey," said Ranma. "I beat him, didn't I?"

"And having your face covered had nothing to do with it," said Akane with a roll of her eyes. "You can't even beat Ms. Hinako at cards when she's in kid form."

"Hey, I beat her as much as she beat me," said Ranma.

"And that says it all," said Akane in a tone of voice that said that there was no arguing with her, a tone that only females could manage in Ranma's experience.

"Hey, I didn't see you doing anything useful 'bout that Gambler King," said Ranma, who of course took that tone as a challenge.

"I won my room back!"

"And I won the dojo back!"

"Only because you cheated!"

"Worked, didn't it?"

"We were doing just fine without you!"

"You say that now!"

"I said it then too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Don't you two ever get tired of arguing?" drawled Nabiki from the doorway, disturbing the pair of them as she strutted into the room.

"NA-BI-KI!" growled Akane from between gritted teeth.

"Calm down, Akane," said Nabiki, as she patted her sister on the shoulder in a most patronising manner. "You'll give yourself a heart attack."

Akane looked like she was about to let loose the anger-aura-of-pure-doom and was certainly not going to be saying anything constructive anytime soon.

"What d'ya want, Nabiki?" asked Ranma. "I ain't got no money for ya."

"Would I take your money?" asked Nabiki with the most pathetic air of false-innocence Ranma had ever seen outside of his pop's 'I'm just a cute little panda' act. "I was just wondering if you knew anything about what was going on in Juuban."

"Uh," said Ranma. "Erm. Well, what d'ya mean?"

"Well, I wouldn't mind knowing who those girls were," said Nabiki. "But really, I want to know about this ginzuishou. That could be worth a lot of money; I might even be persuaded to send some your way if you helped me find it."

"What makes you think I know anything?" asked Ranma, shifting nervously from foot to foot. "Only been there a few days."

"Oh please," said Nabiki in a most dismissive tone of voice. "If there's weird crap to be found, you'll have found it. Come on, Ranma; this could make us both rich."

"I don't know nothing," said Ranma. "Why'd I be interested in some dumb crystal?"

"Saotome . . . " said Nabiki, drawing his name out and moving towards him.

"Ranma, don't you have homework to do?" asked Akane.

"Huh?"

"You know," said Akane, looking at him intensely. "What we were talking about earlier."

Ranma couldn't remember saying anything about homework but he'd take any excuse to escape a Nabiki looking to make some money. "Oh, that," he said. "Yeah. Got that to do. See you later, Akane, Nabiki."

And making sure Nabiki couldn't see, he mouthed a thank you to Akane, before jumping out of the open window and bouncing away to safety.

* * *

Ranma ended up heading back to Juuban as soon as he left the Tendo house. He wouldn't have minded paying a visit to Ucchan, but he was still kinda angry at her for coming along with Shampoo and crashing the wedding like that. Wasn't that he wanted to marry Akane or nothin', really it wasn't, but it wasn't right to come in chucking bombs around like that, not after everything that had happened in China. It just wasn't the time for it. And blowing up the dojo like they had was over the line too. There'd been no need for them to do that. 

Halfway back to Juuban, though, Ranma felt a weird drain on his ki start up. It was nothing like as bad as Ms. Hinako when she got in the mood to use that stuff the old letch had taught her, but it still wasn't all that pleasant. It wasn't all that subtle, either, so Ranma could trace the path along which his ki was being drained. Once he focussed on looking at the ki and not the normal stuff, it was pretty damn blatant, really. He could see his ki being slowly sucked out of him but it was intertwined with a lot of black stuff too, and that black stuff felt almost as repulsive to Ranma's ki senses as Chardin had looked to Ranma's eyes.

And so Ranma followed that thread of power to its source, hopping from roof to roof and bouncing off stationary trains as he went. Even focussed on his jumping as he was, he couldn't help but notice that _nothing_ was moving as he went to the source. Cars, trains, buses - they were all just stopped, and a lot had just crashed as they kept on going in the direction they'd been moving when their drivers stopped being able to drive them. He couldn't help but start to get angry as he made his way to whatever was causing this. It was still draining people now as they laid around dying!

Soon enough Ranma reached the source: Tokyo Tower. He swore under his breath as he saw that. Trashing Tokyo Tower in a fight would not make him popular and stuff always got trashed when he got in a fight near. Well, at least Ryoga wasn't around; it'd be pointless to even try and avoid trashing it if the pig-boy was there. And as soon as that thought passed through his mind, Ranma sucked in a breath and waited on tenterhooks for just a moment expecting to hear, "WHERE THE HELL AM I NOW?" or something similar, but it never came, thankfully.

Once he was past cursing himself out for being stupid enough to even think about Ryoga at a time when he didn't want pig-boy, Ranma started making his way up to the top of the tower to deal with whatever was doing this. Thankfully, the lift was still working, because he didn't really fancy scaling a three hundred metre tower; it would really smart if he managed to mess his footing up somehow and fell.

Finding the person responsibly for the drain proved to be pretty easy too. When there's a whole load of people conked out on the floor and one strutting around cackling, well, even Kuno could get from A to B, though he'd probably take a side-trip through C,D, and E too before he stopped blaming the 'foul sorceror' and got to the right place.

"You!" shouted the woman when she noticed him. "Who the hell are you? And what are you doing here, you stupid human?"

"I'm Ranma Saotome of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts," said Ranma, tensing his muscles ready to move. "And I accept your challenge!"

And with that said, Ranma kicked off into the air and slammed feet-first into the woman's face with a flying kick that she offered no resistance to, no attempt to dodge or block or anything. The woman was bounced off the wall of monitors behind her by the attack and Ranma landed deftly on his feet.

"Kinda weak, ain't ya?" he said in an incredibly cocky tone of voice.

"You . . . " sputtered the woman as she rose back to her feet. "DAMN HUMAN! DIE!"

The volley of black lightning that came out of her hands as she screamed the last was truly unpleasant looking, but Ranma was already dodging away from the blast. As Ranma flipped away, the wall behind where he'd been stood simply exploded as the dark energy struck it.

"JUST DIE, DAMN YOU!"

Ranma then found himself bouncing around the transmission room like a ping-pong ball as arcs of black lightning repeatedly lashed out from the woman's hands and blasted the hell out of everything it touched. Damn but she had to be letting off some serious hot ki with the way she was letting those blasts off; they just stank of rage and hate. Ranma found himself instinctively dropping into the Soul of Ice and entering the spiral movement that would let him take advantage of that. The lightning attacks kept up but Ranma was more than up the task of dodging them as he went around.

And then as the spiral completed, he threw a jumping uppercut and yelled, "HIRYU SHOTEN HA!"

Nothing happened.

And then Ranma was blasted across the room and bounced off a wall and to the ground as he took a volley of lightning full on the chest. The impact was powerful enough that it stunned him long enough for the woman to think she'd won.

"Pathetic," she sneered. "As if a mere _human_ would be a match for one of Beryl's chosen."

Ranma just blinked. What the hell had just happened? This woman'd been giving off enough hot ki for a Hiryu Shoten Ha for sure the way she'd been going on and his Soul of Ice had been perfect, he know that for sure. As he rolled off his back and away from the follow-up blast, he began to run through the possibilities for what had blocked the attack and he was coming up dry; even with Herb it hadn't fizzled that badly. Another blast, another dodge. Something was seriously off here. More blasts, more dodges. Ranma opened his senses and tried to get a better read on the situation.

What Ranma saw when he opened his senses caused him to stumble slightly, and he avoided being blasted again by the skin of his teeth. The woman had _no ki whatsoever_. She was producing nothing other than that dark energy Ranma'd felt mixed in with the ki she was draining. The only other place Ranma'd felt anything like that before was the previous night in the wedding dress shop. And if that darkness was there, then maybe he could contrast it with that magic he'd used last night.

Ranma reached deep inside himself as continued to dodge the woman's attacks and looked for that power. It was not difficult to find, and, when Ranma called to it, it jumped to his aid. Once again, he began the spiral. This time, instead of radiating cold ki, he radiated that power, that magic, as he moved through the spiral. The lightning attacks continued and Ranma dodged them cleanly, contorting his body wildly as he went but maintaining the spiral once more.

As Ranma neared the middle of the spiral, he felt a large burst of power similar to what he'd found in himself and the ambient ki levels dropped dramatically.

"Hey, looks like someone rumbled your little scheme," mocked Ranma.

The woman just screamed and redoubled her efforts, but Ranma continued to dodge her attacks handily as he ran the spiral. And when he reached the centre, he called out "HIRYU SHOTEN HA!" once more. This time the world went white around Ranma as it exploded into the single biggest tornado that he'd ever seen. He vaguely heard the woman screaming obscenities as she was blown away but it was hard to make out above the winds. Ranma really had to doubt the wisdom of this one. So much for not trashing Tokyo Tower anyway. He really doubted that it would be in one piece after this one.

Eventually, and it was a _long_ eventually, the winds dissipated and Ranma was alone in an office that could only be called such in the very loosest sense of the word. There really wasn't enough of anything left for it to be called such really, but there was still some scraps of material that kinda suggested that it had been an office once upon a time. And then the entire structure groaned and shook underneath Ranma's feet.

"Ah hell," he said. "I'd better get out of here before anyone spots me."

**A/N: Better formatted versions can be found on my homepage.  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Ranma's plan to do a quick runner and avoid the attention of those who would likely be rather quick to blame him for the Tower being ruined came to a crashing halt when he realised that the Tower was full of people who were probably going to need help to escape it. Even his pop at his worst wouldn't be able to turn his back on that; they were martial artists, sworn to protect the weak. He'd lived up to that by defeating the monster, now he had to live up to it by making sure they didn't have a few thousand tons of steel fall on their heads because of him.

It was a bit of a problem really. If he was still around when the police arrived, he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it would somehow become all his fault. It was just the way things worked. Something's wrong – Ranma's there – it's all his fault. It was an unbreakable chain. All it really needed was someone to start yelling about seeing hell and the picture was complete. But what could he do, really? Run away like a coward or help the weak. Not much of a choice. He needed a fix.

He ran through the martial arts techniques he knew or had just seen in his head. Splitting cat hairs was no good, body duplication was no good, those weird turn-into-giant-animals techniques used by Konatsu's sisters were no good, the sealed techniques either hid you completely or not at all, and so it went. He didn't know anything he could use for a quick disguise. He'd need to do something about that; maybe his pop would know something like that. But that didn't fix his problem. He needed something _now_ not when he could get some training in. The police wouldn't give him a rematch.

He did have that strange power – magic, he supposed – that he'd felt inside him since that whole thing with the wedding-dress demon, but he didn't know how to do anything useful with it, so that was no good. What else did he have? He had that girly phone thing they'd given him and . . . oh. He had a transformation pen. The talking demon-monster-thing had forced that on him with the phone when they'd had their group meeting. If he remembered right, they'd said it had some sort of weird magic on it so when he turned into fuku-girl so he wouldn't be recognisable to normal people who didn't already know.

God, but the pen looked girly. He wasn't exactly new to wearing girly clothes or anything, but this was awful. Pink. No matter how well adjusted he got to having to deal with girl-stuff, pink would always make him shudder. Well, there was no point putting it off.

"Jupiter Power, Make Up," intoned Ranma with all the enthusiasm of a man who's about to be forcibly married to Kodachi Kuno.

Immediately, her curse was activated and she felt the distinctive tingling of her body switching to a female's. She barely even noticed that though. Her attention was focussed entirely on the lightning that was flashing around her body as her clothes dissolved into thin air. That was fairly disturbing on its own, but it wasn't a patch on the way she was yanked into the air and twisted into a series of absolutely ridiculous poses as pieces of clothing appeared out of the air and attached themselves to her body. If there was anything worse for a martial artist than completely losing control of their body, Ranma didn't want to see it.

Eventually, thank every spirit that was in the vicinity, the whole thing came to an end with a particularly bright flash of lightning and a twist into the most ridiculous pose of them all. Ranma immediately shifted into a normal position and cast an eye around the room she was in. God, she hoped there were no cameras in the vicinity. She would _never, ever_ live that down, not in a million years. She'd be floating around in the afterlife and still getting taunted about that if Ryoga or her pop ever saw it. First thing she was going when she got the chance was figuring out a way to stop all the damn posing.

Okay, there was no time to waste getting pissy because of some stupid magic trick making her do stupid poses in the nude like some sort of stupid perverted model that someone like that stupid old letch would drool over in one of his stupid magazines that he bought from that stupid shop. Would have been nice if someone had, you know, warned her, though, especially about the nude part. She might not embarrass early, but her mom would go _spare_ if she'd gone through that lot in public.

Ranma shook that off. Time to go. There wasn't anyone nearby who needed her help. Anyone who'd got caught between her and the monster wouldn't have made it anyway, and there hadn't been anyone left alive there. With that in mind, she sprinted to the stairs and headed down to the next floor. There'd probably be survivors starting there, she figured, and there'd be some needing help.

And she was right. Straight away she ran into a whole load milling around near the stairs looking both clueless and highly disturbed by what had just happened. They didn't notice her immediately, but once one of the men – and it just _had _to be a man, didn't it, of course – noticed her, word spread, and the group was quickly gawking at her.

"Umm, hey," said Ranma, scratching at the base of her pigtail nervously. "I'm Ra-Sailor Jupiter. Sorry 'bout this."

"You're _real_?" blurted out someone near the back of the group. Ranma couldn't see them to identify them.

"Nah, I'm just a figment of your imagination. Course I'm real! Shouldn't you people be, I dunno, evacuating or something?"

"Is it safe?" asked someone.

"Safer 'n being up here if the tower falls," said Ranma. "Come on, even bacon-bits could figure that out."

"No monsters?"

"Only monster was up there," said Ranma, jerking her head upwards. "I kicked its ass."

Well, they didn't need to hear anything else. They were off as soon as they heard that there was nothing waiting to eat them. Didn't even give her time to ask if anyone needed help. It went like that a lot as Ranma worked her way through the tower. Few hung around long enough for conversation once they knew it was safe to make a break for it, and it turned out that Ranma wasn't really needed anyway. A couple of people had fallen down stairs and broken legs or what have you when the monster put everyone to sleep, but there was stuff in place to deal with that. Emergency stretchers and stuff so people could get them out if something bad happened.

Ranma was soon clear to go, and she didn't hang around. She just knew that someone would start to think about it sooner or later and she didn't want to have to kick some policeman's ass to get away.

* * *

Tokyo was in chaos. The emergency services were completely, utterly, overwhelmed by what had happened. Ranma could hear the sound of sirens blaring coming from all directions and beyond that there was the scene she'd dropped into when she'd dropped down from a roof and started to walk home. A bus had been coming up to a turn in the road when the driver was caught by the spell and had slammed into straight and through into a brick wall before running into a lamp post and then somehow managing to tip into its side and skid along before friction brought it to a halt. At least that's what Ranma was able to tell from the aftermath. 

It was an absolute mess. The area was crawling with police, firemen, and ambulance crews, but that was something Ranma barely even noticed. Her attention was entirely focussed on the people being brought out of the wreckage. They were all, down to the last man, badly injured. They hadn't been able to brace themselves or anything and they must have been tossed around the bus like a bunch of pinballs as it crashed. It was horrible and Ranma couldn't bring herself to look away. Those were people she might have been able to save if she'd been that little bit quicker or a little bit smarter.

"Miss, you should go," said a policeman, stepping in front of her. "This is no place for a teenage girl."

Ranma opened her mouth to snap off a habitual denial, but it died on her lips. It just wasn't the time or the place. Even she could tell that. At that point, she realised that she was crying. Not much, but the sting was there, and she feel the moisture on her face. Normally, she'd be ridiculously embarrassed, but she couldn't find it in herself right then. She simply wiped the tears off her face and walked away.

It was a fairly long walk from the Tower to the Saotome family home, and Ranma didn't have the spirit about her to go roof-hopping and make it quick. So she just trudged along, taking in the aftermath of the monster's spell. The bus was probably the worst of it, at least that she saw, but there was plenty more misery and suffering to go around that day. By the time she got home, she felt almost as badly as she had at Mount Phoenix when she'd thought Akane was dead.

The street was mercifully quiet as Ranma approached the family home. Even the local gossips seemed to be keeping to themselves. Somewhat eerie as it was, she was glad; she didn't think she'd have reacted very well to having one of the old crones start up that day. And, most mercifully, the street appeared to have been spared. There were no crashed vehicles, no signs of emergency services, nothing.

As soon as she opened the door and made her way in, her mom was there, circling her, eyeing her up as she looked for any injuries. Finally, she glomped onto Ranma. "You're not hurt!"

"Course I'm not," managed Ranma. "I'm the best."

It seemed hollow even as she said it. She had to keep it up though. Didn't want her mom to worry or anything. She was the martial artist, the one with the duty to protect the weak. Not that her mom was weak . . . just, well, her mom.

"This wasn't martial arts."

"No," said Ranma. "Somethin' much worse. Dead now."

"You killed it?"

"Yeah," said Ranma with a sigh. "Making bit of a habit of that."

"It's the right thing to do," said Nodoka. "It's a martial artist's duty."

"Yeah," said Ranma. "I know. It's just . . . "

"I know," said Nodoka. "It's okay, Ranma. You're young. This is hard for you."

Ranma just sighed and relaxed in her mother's grip. One good thing about this body, she was small enough that it was pretty comforting. "Where's pop?" she asked eventually.

That brought the hug to an end and her mom started to worry at the hem of her kimono. "I'm not sure," she said. "I sent him to the shops before it happened."

"He'll be okay," said Ranma. "Pop's tough. Take more 'n this to take him down. Bet he got worse when he was trainin' with the old letch. Know him, he'll come rollin' in drunk with some tall tale to tell."

Nodoka nodded slightly. "I know," she said. And then she changed track. "I find that cooking helps calm my emotions. Would you like to join me?"

Ranma was torn for a moment, but then she nodded. Pop didn't need her to go running after him. If he was in trouble, he could get himself out of it easily enough. Hell, if a car hit him, he'd probably just bounce off. No real danger. Worst came to worst, he had decades of tricks to pull out of the bag. Probably even had a few she hadn't seen before. She was the best, but he was no slouch. Probably only her, the old ghoul, and the old letch who could beat him more often than not in Nerima.

Strangely enough, it worked. By the time they were halfway through the third batch of cookies, Ranma was feeling quite calm. She'd never really though much of cooking before, but it was pretty easy to lose yourself in the routine of it if you let yourself. She'd always wondered why Kasumi seemed to enjoy it all and now she supposed she knew. Now she just had to figure out what Nabiki got out of all that stupid money-grubbing crap she did and she'd be set.

Eventually her pop came rolling in stinking of fire and brimstone with his gi smoke-stained beyond repair. Turned out that the old panda had pulled some kids out of a building that had caught fire on his way home. Like she'd told herself, he was quite capable of looking after himself.

* * *

Ranma had an uneasy night's sleep that night. His dreams were both disturbed and disturbing as he experienced a combination of nightmares related to that day's events and some very strange dreams that _had_ to be related to the whole magical girl thing. He'd sure as hell never had dreams about flying through space before, that was for damned sure. As far as he knew, space travel was for Americans and Russians with those giant rockets they had, not for girls in stupid costumes who just kinda floated along. Still, there might be some use in it. If they could breath in space, then maybe he could learn how to use that if, say, someone started throttling him or something. He could think of a few times when that would have come in handy. 

The morning spar with his pop followed its usual course. Lots of jumping around, taunts thrown every which way, and plenty of over-the-top violence. It really only lacked someone being kicked into a pond and it would have been a picture-perfect clone of their daily routine at the Tendo place. Maybe he could persuade his mom . . . nah, it was kinda nice not to wake up to getting chucked into a pond. Might have been good training, but it wasn't much fun.

It was at breakfast, after getting cleaned up and ready for school in female form, when Ranma decided to raise the subject of the local monsters with her pop.

"Hey, pop," she said, around a mouthful of rice. "You gonna go after those monsters?"

Pop blinked and then drew himself up to his full height, or as close to that as he could manage from a sitting position. "It is the duty of a martial artist to protect the weak," he proclaimed. "And I intend to discharge that duty by having my heir hunt and destroy these creatures using the knowledge I worked so hard to instil in his lazy self."

He would have probably went on in that vein for a while, but Ranma cut him off by chucking a rice ball down into his mouth and down his throat while he spoke. That quietened him.

"Stupid old panda," grumbled Ranma. "Shoulda known it. Always the same."

"Now, Ranma," said her mom. "It _is_ your duty as a martial artist and you _are_ much younger and, ah, energetic than your father."

The stupid old panda-man put on a wounded air, but he was too busy working the rice ball Ranma had lodged in his throat down to say anything.

"Suppose so," grumbled Ranma. "Stupid panda ain't as quick as he used to be."

Her mom opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by a loud gulp from Genma's direction. "Boy, I'll have you know-"

"Yeah, yeah," said Ranma. "Gonna do somethin' 'bout it?"

Pop started to get up but was stopped by Nodoka smacking him in the gob with the family sword, sheathed of course. Would have been messy if it wasn't. "Not now," she said. "Ranma has school."

"Hiding behind your mother," said pop, hand held against his brow in a most theatric manner. "The shame! The terrible shame!"

"Ah stuff it," said Ranma. "I'll have plenty of time to beat you up when I get home after school, old man."

"A true martial artist rises to a challenge when it comes, not when it's convenient!"

"Genma!"

And that was that. Pop knew better than to keep going when mom used _that_ tone of voice. Kinda funny really.

"Hey, pop," said Ranma a few moments later. "I think we should unseal the umisenken and yamasenken."

"Son, that's . . . "

"Dangerous," said Ranma. "Yeah, I know. But if we run into those monsters we might need the extra punch. I ain't planning on using vacuum blades 'gainst Ryoga or anything, you know. I ain't that dumb."

"I don't like it," said pop. "Not one bit. You _promised_ the Kumon boy."

"I promised that I'd teach him the umisenken if he beat me," said Ranma. "Never said anything about sealing it. That was my choice."

Genma actually looked proud of him. "Clever," he said. Then he assumed his wise martial arts master air. "I suppose that, if you use it only under extreme circumstances, it will be acceptable. Demons, monsters, murderers, that sort – only against those should you use the senkens.."

"Great," said Ranma before stuffing one last rice ball into her mouth and swallowing. "Time for me to go if I want to get there in time. See ya later."

As Ranma left she heard her mother say something about manliness. She sounded happy, though, so it didn't worry her too much.

* * *

That morning at school was no better than the day before. The other kids were still avoiding her like the plague and the lessons were still as boring as ever. She tried to pay attention, she really did, but it was _hard_. None of it was even close to interesting for her, not even vaguely close, but she wanted to make her mom proud, so she had to try and do as well as she could. Would be easier if the other kids weren't treating her like a damned leper, but it didn't look like that was gonna be changing any time soon. Stupid normal kids. 

Eventually the bell rang for lunch and Ranma was out of there before anyone could say a word. Not the most polite course of action, perhaps, but the hell with it. They didn't want her there and she didn't want to be there, so why hang around? Usagi and the others might be younger than her and all that, but at least they would talk to her even if they were normal teenage girls. Even talking about boys would be a relief!

Ranma found the girls sat at one of the wooden picnic tables that were on the field between the high school and junior-high school. Usagi was busily working her way through her packed lunch and Ami was sat in front of some sort of computer tapping away at the keyboard. Weird thing, it was. Ranma'd never seen a portable computer before. They were always big things that took up loads of room and beeped a lot while not doing much of anything that was actually useful, but this one was rather compact looking. No doubt that it would have Nabiki drooling if she ever saw it.

"Hi, Ranma," said Usagi with a cheerful smile and wave.

"Hi, Usagi, Ami," said Ranma, sitting down at the table next to Usagi. "What's with the computer?"

"Luna gave me it," said Ami, not looking up from the screen. She looked quite engrossed.

Ranma blinked. The talking demon had given her a computer? "Uh, okay," said Ranma. Well, what can you say to something like that really? She opened her own lunchbox and began to work her way through the small mountain of food within. One good thing about cooking, plenty of food to eat afterwards.

A few minutes passed with the only sounds being those of Ranma and Usagi stuffing their faces and the clacking of Ami's keyboard. Then, "that's it, said Ami. "All the information I can get about Sailor V."

"Huh?" said Ranma, chopsticks pausing mid-flight.

"Data on Sailor V?" asked Usagi.

"You said you were interested so I did a little research," said Ami. Ranma looked mournfully at her chopsticks before lowering the morsel back to the box. She just knew that she was going to get pulled away from her food. She was proved correct when Usagi moved to where she could see the screen and waved for Ranma to follow. With a heartfelt sigh, Ranma did so.

There was a whole bunch of information listed on the computer screen, but it didn't really amount to much. They didn't know who she really was, who she was working for, who she was working with, her real age, or even the exact date of her becoming active. Pretty much useless, all told. The only things that were for certain were her being 'a self-proclaimed champion of justice' – which meant nothing, because so was Kuno – and her self-proclaimed name. There were a few pictures though. And, oh great, she had a c-c-c-demon as well by the looks of it.

"Hey, she looks kinda like Usagi," said Ranma finally after a few moments' thought. "Don't you think, Ami?"

"Maybe a little," said Ami. "I think it's the hair. You don't see many Japanese girls with long blonde hair like that."

"You think I look like Sailor V?" asked Usagi. "I don't see it. That moon-shaped mark on her head, though . . . could she be one of us? Luna said we were from the Moon Kingdom."

"Wouldn't Luna have said something if she was?" asked Ranma. "Doesn't seem like there'd be much point hiding it."

"I don't think she knows as much as she wants us to think she does," said Ami. "And maybe Usagi has the power to sense things. Luna said we're not fully awakened, but Usagi seems to be awakening faster than us."

"You think?" asked Ranma. Usagi was staring off into space, lost in her own thoughts.

"She healed everyone with that wand from Luna," said Ami. "And she's our leader, right? She must have some special powers that we don't."

"Maybe," said Ranma. "But you don't have to be all-powerful to be the leader, just smart, or, I dunno, more experienced. Stuff like that."

Even as she said it, it didn't feel right to Ranma. Usagi was a nice girl, but she didn't seem any more ready for this sort of thing than Ami. If any of them were 'experienced', it would be her. She'd been dealing with weird stuff for years now. Mostly nutters with weird martial arts and not monsters, but it was still more than Ami or Usagi had. Ami looked doubtful too.

And then they interrupted by some short blond-haired kid wearing really, really thick glasses. "Hey, whatcha all doing?" he asked. Then he looked at the computer screen. "Are you serious? You're playing the Sailor V game?"

Ranma blinked. You could get games for normal computers? She'd thought it was an arcade thing.

"Gurio," said Usagi.

"You've got Sailor V data," said the boy, Gurio. "Forget Sailor V. You should look up Sailor Moon, right, Usagi?"

Usagi flinched and Ranma saw her eyes dart to and fro to see if anyone else was listening to the boy.

"But I'll find her first," continued the boy. "I'll be the first one to meet Sailor Moon!"

And then he turned and left, leaving three flabbergasted Senshi in his wake. Usagi looked particularly unhappy, and Ranma could almost see the question running through her mind, "does he know?"

"Ooooh, Gurio makes me so mad," said Usagi eventually, fists clenched in front of her face. "He's so devious!"

"That guy's obnoxious," said a female voice from down on the ground. It took all Ranma's self-control not to flinch away when she looked down. Luna might not be a real c-c-c-demon, and she might not set the neko-ken off, but the instinctual 'argh' was still there if she wasn't careful.

"Luna, where have you been?" asked Usagi, picking Luna up.

"Down in the control room," said Luna. "You're not eating lunch with Naru?"

Ranma really wasn't sure that talking to Luna in broad daylight near two schools was a good idea, but it was a bit late to complain, she supposed.

"Naru," said Usagi. "I forgot about her! She's been acting kinda strange. Same with everyone in class."

And that set Ranma's danger sense off. It was just bound to be another monster causing trouble. There was no time to worry about it then, though. They had to go back to class and they had to keep their cover.

* * *

After school was finished, the whole group gathered at the arcade. Rei, Ami, Usagi, and Ranma were all there along with their, er, mascot-advisor-thing Luna who was abeing carried by Ami. Luna had apparently, ah, retrieved some video that she thought was suspicious. Considering that the title was 'Dark Video' Ranma was inclined to agree. It really wasn't the most subtle of plans. 

"I still say we should have gone to the shop and broke some heads," grumbled Ranma as they approached the arcade.

The others frowned at her, except for Rei. "I did sense evil there," she said. "Something's very wrong about that place."

"We need to check the video first," said Luna. "It's best to know exactly what we're up against before we go charging in."

There was some sense in that even if she didn't like it much, so she kept quiet after that till they reached the arcade.

"Hi, girls," said Motoki when he saw them. "No-one's at the arcade today. Maybe they're watching videos. There's that new video shop . . . I never watch TV myself."

The group nodded and waved their greetings, but quickly moved past, except for Usagi, who stopped to talk to Motoki. "I've been too busy for videos too," she said. Ranma detected a distinct hint of teenage-crush about her behaviour. At least she wasn't as obnoxious about it as Ryoga was. Usagi probably would have stayed talking to the boy longer, but Ami hissing a demand – as Luna thrashed her legs in utter irritation – for her to hurry got her moving again sharpish.

The group stopped in front of the Sailor V game machine. "I set up the machine to play videos," said Luna.

"To play videos?" asked Ranma. "Wouldn't someone, I don't know, notice something like that being done to the machine?"

"This game is wired into the basement," said Luna. As if that was an explanation. So they had a control room in the arcade's basement. How could that _not _be noticed?

"WHAT?" shrieked Usagi, before promptly blushing and looking around to see if that had attracted Motoki's attention. Thankfully, it hadn't.

To cover her embarassment, Usagi quickly pushed the video into the slot for it on the front of the machine. A slot which hadn't been there the previous day. Motoki had to have noticed something was up. He'd have to be a gibbering idiot not to, and he didn't seem to be that. And the moment the video started playing, the machine's screen flashed a _horribly_ bright white that had all the girls flinching away and covering their eyes before the tape was spat out of the slot it had just a moment before been pushed into.

Ranma blinked her eyes rapidly to try and clear her vision. "That can't be a good sign," she said.

"This isn't just a video," said Luna. "Did the enemy . . . "

"Forget about that, Luna," said Usagi, rushing up to the machine. "What about the game!?"

Ah, priorities. Ranma was still trying to clear her vision when she distinctly heard the game speak. ""What are you waiting for, Sailor Moon?" it said. "That's the enemy's brainwashing video! You have to save everyone!"

Ranma shook her head. This was just surreal. It really was. She heard Usagi wondering if the game had really spoken and then she heard Ami saying she was going downstairs. Didn't she hear it? Maybe not. Ranma's senses were a little sharper than a normal person's with all that martial arts training.

"I heard it too, Usagi," said Ranma. "The machine that is."

"You did?" asked Usagi.

"Yeah."

Usagi didn't seem to have expected that but she soon regrouped. "That's great," she said. "We know what to do now."

A few moments later, Ami and Rei reappeared. "It's the Dark Kingdom," said Ami. "At least that's what the video said. It's brainwashing people into searching for you, Usagi, ordering them to find you and take you to them."

"Time to kick some ass then," said Ranma. "Jupiter Power, Make Up!"

She regretted using the pen almost immediately as she went through the whole sequence of poses. It was just . . . instinct. A moment after she started, the others followed in her footsteps, and soon the Sailor Senshi were ready to go, stupid poses and all. She still really needed to fix that when she had the time.

* * *

It really wasn't difficult to locate the trouble spot. A huge horde of zombified people marching through Tokyo tearing things up looking for Sailor Moon would be very, very hard to miss, after all. And they were speaking. 

"Find Sailor Moon."

"Search."

"Where is she?"

"I'm here," shouted Usagi, drawing the attention of the horde. Then she continued in a more normal tone of voice, "it's me . . . Champion of Love and Justice, Sailor Moon."

Bit over the top, Ranma thought, but it got the message across.

Usagi raised her thingymajigger over head and called out, "Moon Healing Escalation!", as she brought it down. One blinding flash of light later, they had a large mob of people standing around looking absolutely lost. They began to disperse pretty quickly though. Ranma could vouch for how disturbing it was to find yourself somewhere and not have the faintest idea how you got there, so it didn't surprise her that they'd got the hell out of there as quickly as they could manage.

"Well . . . that was anti-climatic," said Ranma.

"Welcome, Sailor Moon."

Apparently she'd spoke too soon. Ranma whirled around and saw a blond-haired man in a military-style uniform floating in mid-air, a man that looked rather familiar. It was the woman from the Tower! Except, not a woman. Another crazy cross-dresser. How many of those could there be in one city anyway?

"I won't let you use entertainment to brainwash people," said Usagi. "In the name of the Moon, I will punish you. Moon Twilight Flash!"

A wave of silver energy flooded out of Usagi – she had some _serious _power, that girl – and hurtled through the air in the direction of the floating man. Just before the energy made contact, he disappeared into thing air with a faint pop. Before anyone react, he reappeared behind Usagi and grabbed her around the throat.

"Where is the crystal?" he growled.

Ranma's reaction was immediate, as was Rei's.

"Akuryo Taisan!"

"Supreme Thunder!"

A magically powered ofuda and a massive bolt of lightning crackled through the air towards the back of the creature that had his arm around Usagi's neck, but instead of blowing him away as expecting they crashed into an invisible barrier around the man and back towards the Senshi. Rei was blasted off her feet, but Ranma was quick enough to leap into the air and avoid being fried by her own lightning.

Ranma couldn't leave it at that, no way. As she began her downwards arc, she moved her arms in a blur and called out another attack, " Kijin Raishu Dan!", and fired off a vacuum blade at the creature's back. That attack was deflected again, and this time Ranma couldn't dodge. It caught her in the mid-section and ripped a gash through her uniform as well as slicing open a superficial cut on her gut. She still managed to land on her feet though.

"Ranma! Rei!" she heard Ami call out, sounding quite upset.

The uniformed man laughed. "You can't stop me!"

Ranma tried to enter melee range to pound the bastard's head in, but she found herself stopped by another invisible barrier metres short of her target. She tried to punch through it, but there was no visible effect. She heard Usagi call out for Tuxedo Mask to help, but she could see the masked man on a roof-top and he didn't seem to be able to get any closer either.

The uniformed man seemed to lose patience at that point. A dagger appeared in one of his arms and he raised it high, poised to deliver a killing blow to Usagi's neck. "DIE!" he called out. Usagi screamed and Ranma felt a wave of black hopeless rise up in her as the hopelessness of it became apparent. She continued to attack the barrier between them but it was seemingly impenetrable.

And then the arm the man was using to keep his grip on Usagi's neck was abruptly cut in two by a flying crescent and Usagi stumbled forward as the grip disappeared.

"Sailor Moon!" called a female voice. "Get down!"

Usagi instinctively obeyed and fell to the ground on her knees, and then a swarm of the crescent-shaped items flew out of the shadows on the other side of the man from Ranma and cut the man to ribbons. It was a gruesome sight, but the body dissolved almost immediately leaving nothing more than a greasy spot on the floor to indicate where the bastard had stood. The Senshi immediately charged through to Usagi and helped her to her feet.

Out of the shadows, a fukued girl came, long blonde hair waving behind her as she walked out. She was accompanied by another one of those strange demon-looking creatures that didn't trigger the neko-ken.

"No way . . . " said Usagi.


End file.
